Law #1, Every Action Creates a Personal Reaction, highlights the importance of personally understanding your customers. He describes several implications of this law, but I wanted to specifically touch on a couple of them in this post. I also recommend taking a look at the details of all six laws.

“Experiences need to be designed for individuals”

This is absolutely critical for all customer service organizations to understand. Over the last year or so, EMC has been investing in our Agile Services model in response to this specific requirement. This model is designed to help us meet customers’ business needs by delivering the highest service quality through their preferred channel and with the right delivery methods.

“Customer feedback needs to be the key metric”

EMC has invested in an extensive Voice of the Customer (VoC) program and the information we capture is imperative in helping customers. Asking the questions and gathering information is, of course, only half of the equation. While it is no easy task, an effective VoC program must successfully mine the information received from customers, and incorporate it in the future service experience. As Temkin states, customer input should “drive priorities, decisions, and investments.” Fortunately, new big data analytics best practices and tools have further enhanced our ability to make this happen.

Indicating the importance of this in a VoC program, Temkin Group established its Customer Experience Excellence (CxE) Award based on two criteria: customer experience transformation efforts and results. I am proud to report that EMC was awarded the prestigious 2012 CxE last month. This award is special for us because it highlights that our focus on closing the loop with our customers has been successful. Many of the investments and innovations we made, including Live Chat, the new EMC Online Support experience, and enhanced multi-lingual support, are in direct response to customers’ feedback.

As indicated in this post’s title, I don’t expect customers to thank us for asking for their feedback. Rather, we at EMC sincerely thank our customers for taking the time to provide feedback – feedback that drives EMC “priorities, decisions, and investments.” We know this is a partnership based on mutual success and we will accept customer thanks in response to the resulting improvement in service excellence.

Kosten has over 30 years of experience in service and supplier management, with a proven track record in building outstanding service delivery organizations. Prior to joining EMC, she was vice president of global customer services delivery for Oracle/Sun Microsystems, responsible for delivering all elements of Sun’s support services.

Under her leadership, Sun achieved the prestigious J.D. Power Certified Technology Service and Support (CTSS) Award for “An Outstanding Customer Service Experience,” the TSIA Award for Excellence in Service Operations, and was inducted into the STAR Awards Hall of Fame.

Kosten is a 2008 recipient of the Denver Business Journal’s Outstanding Women in Business (High Tech and Telecommunications) Award and a 2006 recipient of the Silicon Valley YWCA Tribute to Women and Industry (TWIN) Award. She also is on the steering committee for TSIA’s Women in Services community of interest.

She holds an MS degree in systems management from the University of Southern California and a BS in marketing from the University of West Florida.